Come July and August, especially at raspberry time, I usually fill my shirt with the harvest before I come in with the girls. Well, now that I made this garden apron, I can fill up the apron pouch instead. I am using the Glitter, Vinyl and Thread tutorial apron to demonstrate how four button holes and two buttoned straps can turn a regular apron into a very useful tool for bringing in the summer’s bounty.

This pattern can be adjusted to any apron you may already have. But who doesn’t want to have a dozen aprons hanging in the kitchen, so I don’t blame you for making a new one just to try this out.

Here’s a quick illustration of the pattern, obviously not to scale. But since you can do this with any apron, you just need to know the position of each element of the design. The blue lines represent the apron and pocket. The green lines represent one inch long button holes. And the red lines represent four inch long tabs, each with a button hole at the end and the buttons that they fasten to.

Starting at the hem, make a one inch button hole about 3/4 of an inch away from the side seam. Repeat on the other side of the hem.

Using a pin to mark the halfway point, make another one inch button hole halfway up the apron body, also 3/4 inch from the seam. This is also repeated on the other side.

When cutting the fabric in your button hole, use a seam ripper. So that you don’t cut through the stitches at the end, put a straight pin through the fabric to stop the seam ripper before the bar. Trim out all the little hanging threads.

Then with a contrasting fabric (I used the same veggie fabric as the pocket of my apron) cut out two 4″ by 2″ rectangles. These will be the tabs at the top, indicated in the sketch with red.

Give the tab a short 1/4 inch seam. Stitch it down. Then fold the raw edges into the middle, press. Fold the whole thing in half and press. Now you have a 1/2″ wide tab.

Edge stitch down the tab and add another one inch button hole on the hemmed end of the tab.

Using a satin stitch set to 4.5 width attach the raw end of the tab to the waist band of the apron very near the edge of the body of the apron. The button hole side of the tab should be facing out, not towards the middle.

Now fold the tab back towards the middle so that it makes a roomy loop. Mark where your button should go.

Securely attach the button. For this project I prefer to use a button with a shank on the back. But you can always make your own shank by wrapping the thread around and around behind the button if there are buttons you really want to use that have holes through them instead.

You’re done sewing now! To make your apron into a pouch thread the tab through the button holes you sewed into the sides of the apron body and fasten it closed on the button at the waist band. The button holes will hang on the tab.

Look at my belly! No, really, look at the pouch holding a huge bunch of flat leaf parsley. I can’t wait to fill this up with green beans and snap peas!

And when you’re not harvesting, you can wear your apron hanging down. With the tabs buttoned shut they make great utility loops to hold your garden tools.

I hope that you carry mountains of veggies and fruits into your house in these aprons. And if you try it out, let us know!